A Scottish council has refused planning permission for a new petrol station and service area partly because the development would “increase dependency on car travel” and go against government plans to “address the climate emergency”.
EG Group, as the operator was known when the planning application was made in 2022, wanted to construct a petrol station, bank of EV chargers and retail food outlets by a roundabout on the A737 west of Glasgow.
But Renfrewshire Council this week refused permission partly as the complex would go against the Scottish Government’s ‘National Planning Framework 4’, which stipulates, among other things, that car use must be reduced by 20% by 2030 in line with the country’s Climate Change Plan.
The council gave four reasons for refusing permission for the development, and while one of these related to concerns that the plans did not “demonstrate that the proposal is an acceptable green belt use”, all three others cited reasons related to either climate change, or the need to encourage walking and cycling.
In addition to increasing dependency on cars, Renfrewshire said the application “fails to demonstrate that it is accessible by a choice of sustainable transport modes” and that it ”fails to demonstrate a [sic] safe walking, wheeling and cycle connections to and from Lochwinnoch”.
The proposed development sits less than half a mile from Lochwinnoch train station and is surrounded by lochs, a reservoir, a quarry and a golf club. Locals were largely opposed to the plans, with 57 objections and four supporting comment made during the planning process.
